Grocery prices in April had biggest monthly jump in nearly 50 years
Grocery prices showed their biggest monthly increase in nearly 50 years last month, led by rising prices for meat and eggs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. US consumers paid 4.3 percent more in April for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, 1.5 percent more for fruits and vegetables, and 2.9 percent more for cereals and bakery products, the Labor Department said Overall, consumers paid 2.6 percent more in April for groceries, the largest one-month jump since February 1974. The jump in food prices came in a month when more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs, driving one in five households into food insecurity. The increase in food prices was in marked contrast to a broader decline in the basket of goods that makes up the US consumer price index, which fell .8 percent in April, the largest single-month decline since 2008. — WASHINGTON POST
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RIDE HAILING
Uber to require drivers and passengers to wear masks
Uber outlined new safety procedures at a virtual event Wednesday, a move aimed to inspire more drivers and riders to feel comfortable getting into a shared car again. The rules will require drivers, passengers, and food delivery couriers to wear face masks as cities begin to reopen across the United States. After the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading rapidly in the United States more than two months ago, Uber urged riders to stay home and shuttered its carpool service completely. Uber will also ask drivers to submit a selfie showing them wearing a mask. Drivers who refuse the verification in the United States, Canada, India, and most of Europe and Latin America will not be able to go online beginning Monday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Trump extends ban on Huawei for another year
President Trump extended his effort to curb Huawei Technologies Co.’s access to the US market and American suppliers. The president on Wednesday renewed for a year a national emergency order that restricts Huawei and a second Chinese telecommunications company, ZTE Corp., from selling their equipment in the United States. The move continues a battle with China over dominance of 5G technology networks. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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ONLINE RETAIL
Amazon says one- and two-day deliveries to resume soon
Amazon.com Inc. says the one- and two-day delivery times that shoppers have come to expect should gradually return in coming weeks as the online retailer catches up from a demand surge tied to the coronavirus outbreak. The company on Sunday lifted restrictions on the amount of inventory its suppliers can send to Amazon warehouses and is shortening delivery times — which had stretched for weeks for some products since the outbreak began — back to days. Amazon spends months preparing for the surge in consumer demand that usually comes during the holiday season. The COVID-19 outbreak that closed many retail brick-and-mortar stores and sent millions of shoppers online created a month’s worth of Black Friday spending without warning. Once Amazon fell behind, it took several weeks and hiring 175,000 people to get back on track. Meanwhile, Amazon will end warehouse worker pay raises in June, after spending almost $800 million in extra incentives to keep employees picking, packing, and shipping through the Covid-19 pandemic. A group representing workers said it’s too soon given the risks to employees. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Apple bringing employees back to offices
Apple Inc. plans to soon start returning more employees to its major global offices while other tech companies are continuing work-from-home policies through at least the end of 2020 due to COVID-19. The Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant plans to bring back employees in phases to its offices, including the main Apple Park campus in Silicon Valley, over a few months, according to people familiar with the plan. The first phase, which includes staff members who can’t work remotely or are facing challenges working from home, has already begun in some regions globally. It will expand to major offices across late May and early June, Apple has told staff. Facebook and Google have said that most employees can work from home through 2020. Amazon.com Inc. said that office workers will be able to work from home until early October and Twitter Inc. said staff can work from home “forever” if they choose. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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ELECTRONICS
Sony says profit could plunge 30 percent as demand falls
Sony warned operating profit could fall 30 percent or more in the current fiscal year as the coronavirus hampers production of devices like smartphones and saps consumer demand for digital cameras and other electronics. Chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida has overhauled the technology icon in recent years to focus on franchises such as sensors for smartphone cameras and the PlayStation games business, yet many of its operations remain vulnerable to people getting stuck at home. Consumers can’t go out to buy phones or electronics or watch Sony movies in the cinema, while factories that make its products are struggling to return to full capacity. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Adelson drops quest to open a casino in Japan
Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company, is dropping its pursuit of a license in Japan, ending a multi-decade quest for what was one of the biggest prizes in the global gambling business. The company founded by billionaire Sheldon Adelson has been trying to expand in Japan since at least 2005, but management objected to some terms of the country’s casino legislation, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the biggest stumbling blocks was that the concession would be good for only 10 years. The company’s resorts in Macau and Singapore have licenses that extended for 20 and 30 years, respectively. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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US will receive Sanofi’s COVID-19 vaccine first if it develops one
Americans will likely get Sanofi’s COVID-19 vaccine before the rest of the world if the French pharmaceutical giant can successfully deliver one. That’s because the United States was first in line to fund Sanofi’s vaccine research, chief executive Paul Hudson said in an interview with Bloomberg News. He warned that Europe risks falling behind unless it steps up efforts to seek protection against a pandemic that’s killed more than 290,000 people worldwide.“The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk,” Hudson said. The United States, which expanded a vaccine partnership with the company in February, expects “that if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS
South Africa imposes quirky restrictions on retail
South African stores can only sell shoes if they are “closed toe,” and short-sleeved shirts if they are promoted or displayed to be worn under jackets or jerseys, according to the latest list of government rules that spell out what’s allowed during a nationwide lockdown. The regulations published Tuesday are the latest addition to a plethora of state directives — ostensibly to limit economic activity and curb the spread of the coronavirus. Most South Africans are baffled about what purpose they serve.
— BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Grocery prices in April had biggest monthly jump in nearly 50 years - The Boston Globe
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